Interesting...

Palm's New Treo Pro Smartphone
Competes With iPhone, BlackBerry

By ROGER CHENG
August 20, 2008 3:52 p.m.

Palm Inc. unveiled a new, sleeker-looking Treo handset, an effort by the struggling smartphone maker to step up competition with Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry devices.
The Treo Pro -- which is slimmer and has a larger screen than its clunky predecessor -- shows off Palm's recent effort to make major design changes, an attitude some said it lacked in the past few years.
Palm Inc. Palm's new Treo Pro is slimmer than its predecessor and has a larger screen. "It's a positive benchmark," said Ken Dulaney, an analyst with research firm Gartner Inc. "They had real form-factor problems. With this product, they correct those issues."
Palm, once the pioneer in the smartphone market, has watched its dominance and sales slide as higher profile players such as RIM's BlackBerry line and Apple's iPhone stole the spotlight.
The Treo Pro -- with a suggested selling price of $549 -- also provides the company with a higher-end device aimed at business customers, which could help offset the consumer-targeted Centro which is much less profitable because of its lower price tag.
"It's a significant step for us," said Brodie Keast, senior vice president of marketing for Palm. "You can expect every product to be an improvement over the last one."
The Treo Pro is the latest product to have the fingerprints of Chairman and product development guru Jon Rubinstein. While the Treo Pro was already on the product roadmap when Mr. Rubinstein arrived at Palm, the executive heavily influenced the look and feel of the product.
In addition to its slimmer form factor and larger screen, the Treo Pro offers global positioning systems, or GPS, capability and Wi-Fi Internet access. The smartphone features the largest battery that Palm has used.
The Treo Pro will be released through various European carriers in September. An unlocked version for the U.S. will hit the market this autumn. Because it runs on GSM technology, the device can only work on AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA's networks in the U.S. T-Mobile is a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG.
Write to Roger Cheng at roger.cheng@dowjones.com

 

Good looking phone - but treo's OS hasnt been updated since when? Ford?